


Camelot Nine-Nine

by rou



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Brooklyn Nine-Nine AU, Fanart, Fanvids, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-02
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-08-24 12:09:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8371855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rou/pseuds/rou
Summary: graphics, intro vid and something that's a bit long to be headcanons but not really a fic either





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was one of my old merlinreversebb entries from last year. Unfortunately the fic didn’t happen (bcos RL happens from time to time) and idk if it ever will. but i keep coming up with scenarios for this AU that i need to put somewhere, so here it goes: some headcanons that would be a 30k+ fic by now if i was a writer

[on tumblr](http://brolinskeep.tumblr.com/tagged/camelot99)

 

 

 

 

 

_[First things first cos a lot of ppl who reblogged the vid/gifset wondered where the rest of the knights are]_

 

Lancelot and Elyan are firefighters at the Camelot fire department. The long-term pissing contest between the PD and FD has calmed down to an annual baseball match on July 4th and the New Year’s barbecue/grill off ever since Elyan and Lance (engaged to Gwen by now) joined the FD. Lancelot is hoping to make captain soon so he’ll have more time and money when Gwen and he start a family.

Mordred’s currently legal assistant to assistant district attorney Morgause DuBois, and part time pain in the ass to the squad. Morgause would be an even bigger pain in the ass if everyone wasn’t downright scared of her, except Morgana of course.

Leon’s with the DEA and recently made head of the NY division. He’s Arthur’s childhood friend and later foster brother after Uther took Leon in when his parents were killed (they were lawyers who refused to represent a known mob boss). Working with the DEA has become much smoother for the squad since Leon took over, even more so when Arthur takes over the captaincy of the 99.

_[and the reason why none of them made it into the vid is cos it’s about the squad and only 20 sec long + i had no good source material at that time. :)]_

 

enter: the 99 aka the squad

Percival is sergeant of the squad and he’s keeping the place going between their old captain’s retirement and Arthur taking over as their new captain. And while Percival really loves his detective friends like a second family, he’s got his two younger siblings (9 and 13ys old) to look after ever since daddy dear checked in behind bars.

He gets a lot of help from Gwaine, the squad’s can-we-already-say former frat boy. money’s not a problem for him, on the contrary he’s happy to spend as much of his late dad’s fortune on Percival and the kids as Percival accepts, and is just happy about the feeling of something like family when they keep him company while he’s fixing up that big ass _'shut up Merlin it’s not a mansion'_ house his father has left him.

Mithian is basically the British version of Gina Linetti from b99, except that she’s less into dancing and Percival’s big guns and more into hacking and Elena from forensics.

Gwen’s got a good bunch of offers for her own captaincy under her belt already, but she’s not taking them cos she loathes the idea of more paper work than she already has to face as detective, and is rather on the street protecting Camelot’s citizens, plus someone has to keep an eye on her friends.

Morgana grew up with Arthur as his younger half-sister. while Uther (NYC police commissioner of 8ys by now, good at fighting crime, not so good with people) encouraged and pretty much expected nothing less of Arthur than following in his footsteps, he was less supportive of Morgana showing the same ambition.  
Ever since she’s shown him the error of his ways by graduating top of her class, only one disciplinary complaints (and really that asshole had it coming) and the police combat cross presented by Mayor Annis herself. What Uther probably wasn’t happy about again was Morgana signing up for an occasional spin at the SWAT team, but he’s learnt to keep his mouth shut up about by now.

Merlin and Morgana have been best friends ever since they started class together at the academy, and he would have been best of class with her if he was as passionate about following protocol as he is about putting away bad guys (something he wanted to do in life ever since some assholes robbed his uncle’s wholefood store when Merlin was 10)  
It’s not like he’s opposed to following orders, doing his reports or waiting for search warrants. They are just annoying when you are this close to bring in your perp; you don’t get to be detective with the highest rate of solved cases in the district if you wait for your captain to finish their lunch break before allowing you to check whether there’s meth lab in the basement of the hair salon or not.

This might have worked with the squad’s old captain, but it’s gonna be different with Arthur, has to be different with Arthur cos he’s experienced firsthand what it means to have a case blow up in your face just because you didn’t stick to the playbook: Arthur started the academy like a month after graduating college (unlike Morgana who took a sabbatical year after college to travel South America and Europe), but didn’t join the NYPD afterwards.  
Instead he went south to become a detective at the Miami PD to earn his merits somewhere he wasn’t the son of commissioner Uther Pendragon.  
He had become one of Miami’s best new detectives, promotion as good as in his pocket, when due to some carelessness on Arthur’s part the chain of custody of some key evidence against a big drug dealer had become tampered and declared inadmissible eventually, resulting into the jackass walking free. 3 months later he was back in police custody and this time going behind bars for good after some 15y old had died of jackass’ shit laced heroin.  
Of course, Arthur blamed himself for the boy’s death and ‘to get away from everything’ for some time, enrolled in the UN mission to help training police in Afghanistan.

Now that he’s back (done working through his guilt complex as Morgana has put it) Uther has asked him to return home and Arthur has agreed, decorate as he was coming back from overseas anything less than his first command as captain is out of question. that it happens to be the same precinct Morgana is working at is nothing but a coincidence, as Uther claims he has no say in such things, and while neither Arthur nor Morgana fully believe him, they are kind of ok with it if it means they can keep an eye on each other.  
Of course Morgana still loathes taking orders from her big brother and hides the keys to his office or changes his computer password or internal mail signature whenever he’s “especially annoying” (so basically at least twice a week).  
It’s not like Arthur wants to annoy her or anyone else in his new team when he reminds them time and again to keep their paperwork in order, to stick to the rules when arresting suspects, interrogating them and not to miss their safety and medical training (well maybe he sometimes wants to annoy Merlin a tiny bit about those things cos Merlin seems more prone to forget about them more than the others) but only because he learned firsthand that these rules actually save lives, and doesn’t want any of his detectives to make the mistake he did.  
But all of ain’t actually what you tell your new team at your first day on the job, so it might take some time and trust to gain before especially Arthur and Merlin see eye to eye.

 

So, this is the set up they start from and everything becomes or gets back to normal quickly cos you they have a job to do to keep their city save.  
First shake up of their routine (in a good way) comes with the next Jimmy Jab Games™ when Arthur and Percival are supposed to spend the day at headquarters to give their higher up a report and their first few months as a new team. Only unlike their old captain it takes Arthur only about an hour to deliver his report and they've been there first thing in the morning (apparently, the old captain wasn’t as ambitioned, showed up around noon and took the rest of those days off), so when he and Percival make it to the 99, they arrive just in time to witness the burning bagel ceremony.  
Their detectives are so startled that Gwaine almost forgets to puts out the bagel fire, Merlin stands his arms still spread out in front of him over the burning trash can, until Arthur heads into his office ordering Merlin to follow for some explanations.  
But when that’s done, Arthur doesn’t bite off Merlin's head, asks Percival to make sure they don’t miss out any pressing cases, and allows the games to proceed - as long as they do at least a bit of work between game rounds AND Arthur and Percival are allowed to join in.  
Of course they get their asses handed to them: Percival simply can’t bring himself to stomach even one bite during the leftover eating contest, and Arthur is absolute disaster in the fire extinguisher + office chair race, which Merlin is so good at Arthur suspects he's been training for this.  
But it’s probably the best unintentional team building exercise Arthur has ever took part in and the whole precinct erupts into laughter when Merlin reprimands Arthur for breaking the rules of the elevator race during his winning ceremony

"Captain, will all due respect, I know this has been your first games, but you cannot send down your opponent’s elevator cab to buy yourself more time."

"I’ll make sure to issue a formal apology as soon as you file a complaint report, Emrys."

 

 

It's not all fun and games though, and pretty soon Arthur learns that Merlin's top notch rate of solved cases comes not only from him sidestepping rules from time to time but also from expenses and risk he's willing to take during chases or investigating underground casinos.  
Case in point: the cast Merlin is sporting in the morning after his solo foot chases of a car thief (the irony of that ain’t lost to Arthur) the night before. While doctor's order is to stay home for the day and then next, Merlin has the guts to show up in the precinct anyway, so naturally Arthur rewards him with a day in the case file room, transcribing old files from paper to digital.  
If Arthur stops by the room more often than he has since taking over the precinct and bringing some lunch for Merlin with him, that’s only to make sure Merlin doesn’t cut himself on the paper to bleed to his death or getting stuck with his crutches right when the elevator doors close.

"I’m not clumsy, you know? the asshole threw the crow bar right into my legs, YOU would've broken something at least probably and not taken him down while falling."

"Excellent! you can share your talent and teach all of us how to fall at the work safety workshop next month. now eat your sandwich."

"Thx but I’m not hungry. you can take your prison food with you."

Merlin's stomach grumbles in protest.

"You sure?"

 

 

They end up in the same room together a lot sooner than either of them prefers during the Halloween heist.  
Learning from their previous misstep his detectives have brought Arthur up to speed on their next "ancient precinct ritual" and because his own sister doesn't tell him anymore than that she's not going to show any mercy to him, Arthur sits down with Gwen and Mithian to teach him all about heist tactics and the top ten distraction tactics.

Arthur goes in prepared to the max and it all goes to plan until Gwaine manages to lock Merlin and him in the file room.  
Turns out there's no phone signal in the room (thx to the thick walls of their old building) and it seems like Gwaine has (conveniently) forgotten about locking them here after his victory and the night shift never comes down here, god knows they have their hands full on Halloween.  
So there's little left to do for Merlin and Arthur (besides trying to squeeze through the air vent that even Percival’s little sister wouldn't fit in, or taking on the 3-inch security door and _'no Merlin we're not going to destroy public property'_ ) and they settle in for the night.  
Arthur breaks out the chocolate and candy he has secretly stored in there (they were meant for the whole team until they forgot that he and Merlin are still locked in here) and Merlin gives Arthur his top ten lists of most stupid hide outs, weirdest stolen goods, a presentation of worst and best headshots with a Halloween bonus round, and a demonstration of the let's say most creative objects posing as weapons for robberies,

"You're telling me that this guy bought a 12inch dildo and 3 hours later came back to rob the same shop with said dildo."

"Welcome to New York."

"I need a drink."

"Wait, you have booze stored here too?"

"Only for today, as prize for the heist winner. You think Gwaine will take it personally if we break out the scotch?"

   
Gwaine probably would have been more heart broken if he hadn't found Merlin and Arthur leaning into each other sleeping when he finally opened the door next morning, coffee for both of them in hand.

 

 

While Arthur reminds Merlin of his paper work and stuff on almost regular basis, it has become more of a habit than an actual necessity by now.  
Which is why Arthur is surprised to see Merlin fall back into old patterns - no scratch that, Merlin may have sung a perp his rights, "lost" a file for two days in the chaos that is his desk or broken into a mob's boss restaurant claiming exigent circumstances, but never has his worked actually suffered from his inconvenient approaches.. at least until now.

They are working this human trafficking case and Merlin's all over the place but he keeps skipping case reviews, almost loses evidence, looks like he hasn't slept in weeks and avoids Arthur when he wants to know what's the matter. For the time being Arthur decides to keep a close eye on him until Merlin's ready to open up about whatever is troubling him.  
In the end, it all plays out fine, they catch the smugglers and even get confessions from all of them and his team goes home knowing they've done everything to put those assholes behind bars for a long time.

Or so they thought: at the end of their next shift the defense attorney and assistant district attorney Morgause Dubois, Mordred in tow, show up at the precinct demanding to talk to detective Emrys.  
Arthur’s out on a crime scene with Morgana at the time and comes back to Percival reporting that Morgause and the attorney are about to skin Merlin alive (and in Morgause case probably Arthur as well afterwards) about tampered evidences and leading on the client and tricking him into his confession.  
When Arthur enters the interview room they have occupied for their witch hunt, Merlin's sitting there starring at the table while Morgause is scowling at him, rolling her pens between her fingers and the attorney's already on the phone talking about immediate release.  
Arthur sends his detective out to go to Percival in the observation room next door and sits down with the two layers to correct them that the evidences haven't been tampered because Arthur had taken care of them himself and that the interrogation the defense claims to have been leading on their client is redundant anyway becasue Arthur had interrogated the suspect himself, hours before Merlin did, getting the same confession. Both offices had gotten the correct and complete file hours before the incorrect files by Merlin arrived - Arthur apologizes for the mix up, he had simply forgotten that he had sent the file already before sending the incomplete version again.  
When the lawyers finally leave, she looks as please as assistant district attorney Morgause DuBois can look, and he is back to phone hissing to his poor assistant to find the fucking correct file.

And Arthur finally gets to sit down with Merlin to find out that Merlin hasn't been himself because he's busy and worried sick about his uncle who's been in an accident.

"Thank you, Arthur. for saving my ass."

"Don't thank me for having your back, Merlin, that's what I’m here for. Just.. promise me: next time when something's troubling you, just tell me and we figure it out together."

   
Arthur sends Merlin home with the order to take the next two days off, to catch up some sleep take care of his uncle.  
When Merlin comes back, Arthur presents him with reduced shift hours and the offer to work from home when possible (he has a similar agreement with Percival so his sergeant can take better care of his siblings) for the next month, enough time to see Merlin's uncle get back on his feet.  
Since then Merlin's reports are typed instead of scribbled down, always on time and double checked.

 

 

 

A few weeks later, Arthur’s defending Merlin again, not against vicious attorneys but against his own father and Uther’s rather conservative standards of how officers of the law should dress and groom themselves.  
It's Uther’s second visit to their precinct, but his first encounter with Merlin in his skinny jeans, motive shirts and light stubble, and Gwaine's magnificent head of hair and beard that still sports some paint from the ongoing renovation of _'his shut up Merlin it's not a mansion'_ house.  
Arthur’s standing by his office with his father when Uther turns to him urging Arthur to order his detectives to dress properly. But before Arthur can open his mouth to tell his father he won't do such thing, Percival stops next to them,

“Actually, Sir, according to the NYPD regulations the captain has no authority over his subordinates’ appearance as long as they don’t pose a danger to themselves and others, hinder them in their work or violate the common understanding of decency.”

“There you go, father. Merlin’s the most efficient when suspects don’t recognize him from a mile ahead, and Gwaine’s been voted best hair in the department’s annual calendar three years in a row. I’m actually concern of possible riots should anyone dare to cut a single lock of his mob. I cannot stop you from having a chat with Morgana on how her style might affect her work out of fatherly concern, but I rather my detectives worry about protecting the public than their appearance.”

One raised eyebrow from Morgana, who of course has listened to their conversation, puts an end to that discussion immediately.  
  
Ten minutes later Arthur walks into the precinct’s kitchen where Merlin is high fiving Percival before Gwaine plans a fat kiss on his forehead praising him for defending his honor. Arthur gets a bow from Gwaine and a double high five from Merlin.  
It’s nobody’s business that Arthur might have preferred a forehead kiss as well, but not from Gwaine.

 

 

It takes nine months into his captaincy until Arthur actually has to worry about one of his detectives: it’s Merlin – of course its Merlin – who’s about to go undercover for the foreseeable future, tasked to infiltrate a rising drug cartel and help take them out before they get too comfortable in their city.  
The first two weeks in which Merlin is forbidden to make any contact at all (unless to get out of course) are hell. Objectively Arthur knows Merlin can handle himself in almost any situation he gets into – Arthur has witnessed firsthand how Merlin prevented a hostage situation in the making by fanboying _‘this is so GTA right now, so cool dude’_ to the bank robber until everyone else had left the bank and Morgana took the man down and put him into cuffs in one move.  
But that doesn’t stop Arthur from worrying sick until he finally gets his first call from Merlin at 4AM complaining that the internet connection at his undercover flat dates back to the early nineties.  
From there on it’s meet ups in parking garages and Merlin’s cover’s fave coffee shop – the coffee is actually so horrible they switch to hot choc right on the first meet up –, and late talks on the phone. Merlin’s supposed to call just for regular updates or in case of new developments, but _‘I have no entrainment here whatsoever, Arthur, so you gotta do something about it. Entertain me, tell me what everyone’s been up to so I don’t come back a total stranger’_ and Arthur does.  
One of those nights Arthur tells him about his time in Miami.

After three months it’s finally over, Merlin has collected enough evidence to send everyone and their mum behind bars and they move to bust to bust the cartel’s next big deal. The squad storms the old factory guns blazing to find Merlin exchanging lasagna recipes with the mob boss and her right-hand man cover in what looks like at least 300 grand in cocaine.

“How da hell did you even do that?”

“Dance off.”

“Come again?”

“That an offer?”

Instead of making it an actual offer, Arthur pulls him into a tight hug "I’m glad you’re back.”

According to Merlin (during his debriefing) the guy was covered in cocaine because he and Merlin practiced touch downs while waiting for the buyers (respectively the squad) to show up. What even?

“His idea, not mine. It was it pretty good distraction though, when he and the package collided with the pillar and it exploded all over them. In the three months I was there, have never seen Grunhilda that furious – in fact, I might have prevented a 2nd degree murder there... anyway it was a way better diversion than what I had planned.”

“Despite that your orders said ‘wait until we get there’ and that I’m gonna regret to even ask this: what was your planned diversion, Merlin?”

“Food poisoning.”

“You wanted to arrest them while vomiting over their shoes. How would you stage the vomiting?”

“Not staging anything, I’ve had a shrimp cocktail from the bar on 36th for lunch. I’m honestly surprised there’s been no effects yet.”

“Let’s hope there won’t be any. Go and wait in my office, take a nap on the couch, you look like hell. Percival or I will take you home when we’re finished here.”

Turns out the shrimp cocktail worked it’s magic after all and all over the couch in Arthur’s office. Instead of home Arthur takes Merlin to the ER and come tomorrow morning they gonna shut down that bar on 6th.

 

 

There are very few things Morgana doesn’t use to tease Arthur: Miami, Arthur’s protectiveness of his team, lately she also stopped needling him about his crush on Merlin - probably because, like Arthur, she’s come to realize that it’s become more than a crush by now-, and Arthur’s love for his car, a black 1960s Corvette that belonged to his mother.  
And when the car gets stolen, Morgana’s on it with Arthur before he can even ask, determined to find the car and the asshole who stole it before Uther gets wind of the whole thing.  
Merlin joins their investigation too, because he swears on his fave coffee mug that his personal arch enemy must be behind this, some guy Merlin calls ‘the goblin’ – Arthur is still reading up on that saga.

It all cumulates in a hazardous car chase down by the docks that ends early for Arthur and Morgana’s cruiser when Arthur doesn’t notice the tire killers ahead of them before it’s too late.  
When they finally catch up with Merlin he has left his own car and is reversing the Corvette from the end of the dock, the goblin nowhere in sight.

“What happened? Where did he go?”

“He got out of the car and made for the containers over there, but the car kept running towards the water and I had to stop it.”

“You let him go to save my car.”

“Eh I get him next time. Just watch me.”

If Arthur didn’t want to kiss him before already, he sure as hell does now. He doesn’t though, Morgana calls him an idiot.

 

 

Arthur’s always been afraid that someday his past might come back to him to put the people around him in danger, there’s a constant underlying fear of what could happen if he or one of his detectives don’t play by the book.

What Arthur hasn’t expected is his past catching up to him in person of a bank robber named Cendred, a guy with a joker complex and a preference for explosives put behind bars for 40years by Arthur during his third year in Miami.  
Unfortunately no one considered giving Arthur a heads up when Cendred checked out of the Florida state prison a few days ago, so now here they are: Cendred standing on Percival’s desk, armed to his teeth, holding half of the precinct hostage and screaming for Arthur to come out. (If Arthur finds out who didn’t lock the door to the rooftop properly after having a smoke up there, they are going to be on parking duty for the next two years.)

The only reason Arthur’s still alive is because he has been in the bathroom the moment Cendred came down to their floor.  
Arthur’s now watching the floor hidden around the corner by the kitchen and spots Merlin who must have been fast enough to hide from view in the staff room.  
Mobiles muted they are texting back and forth on how to take Cendred out themselves (Merlin) vs to sit tight wait for reinforce from outside (Arthur),

  
'i distract him'  
'you shoot him'

  
'My gun is in my office.'  
_'And you not just go out there and talk to him about state taxes or something, Merlin. He’s going to shoot you right where you stand.'_

  
'i wouldnt talk abt taxes jeez arthur'  
'every1 gets murder urges when u try to talk taxes with them'

_  
'NOT THE POINT MERLIN'_

 

That’s when Cendred raises his nasal voice again to announce that he’s going to start shooting people every five minutes that Arthur won’t come out to face him, and sends Arthur’s plan on sitting this out flying out the window.

  
 

_'Shit'_

  
'shit'

_  
'That gives me no choice, Merlin, I can’t let anyone die for me.'_

  
'YOU ARE NOT GONNA GO OUT THERE SACRIFICING YOURSELF PRAT'

_  
'But'_

  
'NO'

'we havent got a sec to lose u trust me r8t'  
'know u not a big fan when i pull stunts ive seen in movies but were runnin outta options here so tis what we gonna do: u get back to the fuse box, kill all the lights and i take him out'

'and tonight im going to take you out'  
'to dinner'  
'and itd be really inconvenient if u werent alive then'

_  
'How?'_

  
'how ima take you out?'  
'i said dinner'  
'we could go somewhere or i could make us lasagna at my place, remember grunhilda? Her recipe is amazing'

_'I mean how are you going to take him out!'_

  
'plan a taser'  
'plan b fire extinguisher'

_'I don’t like this.'_

  
'beggars cant be choosers'  
'now get movin'  
  
  
' _Ok'_  
' _Merlin!'_  
_'Keep in mind we have a date tonight and it’d be really inconvenient if u weren’t alive then'_

 

Everything is over in like 60 seconds: Arthur sends Merlin a heads-up right before he pulls the plug, when lights are out he hears Merlin shouting everyone take cover, there’s a scream that sounds a lot like Cendred, at least Arthur wills it to be Cendred after he’s turned the lights back on and he runs back to the main office.  
He arrives to Merlin securing Cendred’s guns while Percival and Gwaine manhandle a knocked out Cendred to the cells covered in foam.

It’s close to a miracle that not a single shot went lose but that’s the least of Arthur’s concerns when Merlin walks over to him.

“I know we agreed on dinner tonight, but would it be against protocol if I kissed you before that? Like right now?”

“Actually there are rules about dating between ranks we need to discuss-”

“Arthur, for once just fuck the rules.”

And kisses him.

 

 

 

 

They lose the next Halloween heist again locked up in the files room, but they spend the time shagging so who’s the real loser here.

 

They destroy the rest of the team at the next Jimmy Jab Games™ though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> if anyone feels like turning this into a real fic, ill love you forever


End file.
